us detention centres

With CJI Bobde in Attendance, Canada’s Dosanjh Draws Links Between Detention Centres and Nazism

Former Attorney General of British Columbia and former Canada Federal Minister Ujjal Dosanjh quoted German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemoller’s poem “first they came for…” and spoke of the horrors of Auschwitz.

New Delhi: Former Attorney General of British Columbia and former Canada Federal Minister Ujjal Dosanjh on Saturday drew a parallel between detention centres in Assam and those in other parts of the world at a meet attended by Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde.

At an international conference to celebrate Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary in Chandigarh, he spoke about how Guru Nanak, who stood for safeguarding people’s rights, would have spoken out against them.

Talking about the threats of the present day polity and how various actions committed in the past warn us consequences, the lawyer-politician quoted German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemollar’s poem “first they came for…” where he spoke of crimes against committed against Jews, Romas and Gypsies by the Nazis.

“He said ‘first first they came for communists; and I did not speak out because I was not a communist. Then they came for the socialists; and I did not speak because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists; and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews; and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me…’,” the Indian Express quoted Dosanjh.

Dosanjh also questioned the “silence” surrounding the detention centres in Assam, China and the United States and said Nanak would have acted very differently.

“You think Nanak would be silent in face of all that…the Nanak who said raaje seeh mukadham kute (The kings have become lions, and their subordinates are no better than dogs)… he said that to Babar…he challenged Babar, the excesses of Babar’s invasions. Nanak would not have remained silent. Nanak would have spoken out. Nanak would have been on frontlines. He was a preacher, debater, challenger, he was irreverent”.

Also read: Detention Centres in Assam Are Synonymous With Endless Captivity

The Canadian leader began his speech while referring to the anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz camp. He said Nanak’s teachings remained relevant even today as he was also an activist and a critic who would speak about how the rights of all.

“I cannot imagine Nanak sitting day in and day out reading poetry…spiritual poetry. My Nanak would ask me…you have read it, understood it.. what will you do to change the world? Nanak’s verse is ‘pavan guru pani pita mata dharat mahat (air is our teacher, water our father, and Earth, the great mother)’. He did not say Punjab was mahat. He did not say India was mahat. He said dharat mahat. He would have never…said Punjab is for Punjabis and Assam is for Assamese…Hungary is only for Hungarian white people. Nanak would have never stood silent in face of all that is happening in this world.”

Dosanjh also criticised the thought that supports the setting up of detention centres. He said he has been to the Auschwitz camp where over a million Jews were exterminated. “They were in detention camps. If you have detention camps today, be there in China, be there in Assam, be there in Trump’s United States of America… imprisoning children who are trying to run from poverty and injustice to freedom…He (Guru Nanak) would have said raaje seeh mukadham kute (The kings have become lions, and their subordinates are no better than dogs)… Nanak would ask me are you speaking up… did you just read… did you just make a speech or did you go fight on the frontlines and find change in the world”.

Also read: Assam: ‘Declared Foreigner’ Housed in Goalpara Detention Centre Dies

Dosanjh ended his speech by exhorting people to stand up against all wrong. “We must stand up for freedom, liberty, justice and equality… Isn’t that what Nanak is all about. If you want to pay true homage to Nanak, then let Guru Nanak speak.”

Earlier in his address, Justice Surya Kant of Supreme Court said that the apex court has repeatedly called for preserving constitutional identity and morality.

“Guru Nanak’s teachings are more relevant in contemporary times, when humanity is passing through all shades of serious conflicts. Many of us consider themselves, their caste or religion to be superior to others. This is root cause of all crisis. It has descended to such a level that we are living in the lurking fear of third world war. The need of hour is that everyone – regardless of caste, creed or religion, should imbibe the philosophy of Baba Guru Nanak Dev Ji in letter and spirit and practice universal brotherhood and social justice,” he said.

Chief Justice Bobde said Guru Nanak stood for the cause of equality and justice. “Guru Nanak would demonstrate that all religions were equal and deserved to be equally respected by all. The ideas behind equality of all human beings as well as universal brotherhood formed the philosophy of the holy Guru Granth sahib (Sikh holy book) which we know the collection of poetic hymns through which Guru Nanak delivered his divine guidance,” the CJI said.

The Chief Justice also insisted that just like his teachings transcend all boundaries, “Guru Nanak and his philosophy do not belong only to Punjab or the Sikh religion but his persona and his teachings have gifted pearls of sanity and wisdom to whole world.”

US Border Patrol Agents Are Passing Around a Commemorative Coin Mocking Care for Migrant Kids

The coin is part of a tradition of unofficial “challenge coins” which are common in the military and law enforcement as a way for members to celebrate achievements and build camaraderie.

An unofficial commemorative coin has been circulating among Border Patrol agents at the US-Mexico border, mocking the task of caring for migrant children and other duties that have fallen to agents as families cross into the US.

On the front, the coin declares “KEEP THE CARAVANS COMING” under an image of a massive parade of people carrying a Honduran flag — a caricature of the “caravan” from last fall, which started in Honduras and attracted thousands of people as it moved north. (While the caravan included many women and children, the only visible figures on the coin appear to be adult men.)

The coin’s reverse side features the Border Patrol logo and three illustrations: a Border Patrol agent bottle-feeding an infant; an agent fingerprinting a teen boy wearing a backwards baseball cap; and a US Border Patrol van. The text along the edge reads “FEEDING ** PROCESSING ** HOSPITAL ** TRANSPORT.”

The coin appears to poke fun at the fact that many border agents are no longer out patrolling and instead are now caring for and processing migrants — including families and children.

Government officials told ProPublica the coin was not approved or paid for by the government, unlike official “challenge coins” that go through an agency approval process. One Customs and Border Protection official, who was not authorised to give his name, characterised the coin as “something that somebody’s doing on their free time” – comparing it to woodworking. “A lot of the agents have little hobbies on the side, they build little wooden figures that they have at their homes,” the official said.

It’s not clear who created the coin or how widely it’s been circulated among border agents. But Border Patrol agents in California and Texas – on opposite ends of the US/Mexico border – had seen the coin circulated at their workplaces. One of the agents received a coin in April when a colleague brought several to pass around at the office; the other was shown an online order form for the coins by a colleague at work.

Also read: The Holes in Trump’s Immigration Policy and His Warped Conception of Borders

Both said the coins were promoted via the secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol officials that, as ProPublica recently detailed, included racist and violent posts.

The coin is part of a tradition of unofficial “challenge coins” – which generally outnumber official ones – which are common in the military and law enforcement as a way for members to celebrate achievements and build camaraderie.

But outside observers found this particular coin anything but harmless.

Theresa Cardinal Brown, who worked at CBP under the Bush and Obama administrations, said that the coin was evidence (like the 10-15 Facebook group) of “reflexive dehumanisation” by Border Patrol agents, and that the “tolerance for shenanigans” by supervisors and leadership had gone too far. “You have to say, ‘This is affecting the integrity and authority of us all.’”

The coin appears to have been designed, ordered and distributed months into the surge of Central American families at the border. Coins were being distributed to agents by late April, before the current wave of public attention and outrage over conditions for migrants in Border Patrol custody.

Customs and Border Protection officials said they did not know about the coin until contacted by ProPublica. They said they would investigate it for potential trademark violation since the coin includes the Border Patrol’s logo.

“US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has a firm policy on the use and production of challenge coins bearing CBP identifiers,” a CBP official said, including the US Border Patrol logo. “The coin in question is not an officially approved CBP coin. CBP intends to investigate the matter and will make a determination when all the facts are known.”

However, officials implied that if the coin had not used the official logo, it would be beyond their control. “If it’s something that somebody’s doing on their free time,” said the official who asked not to be named, it is not something the agency can control.

Detainees sleep in a holding cell at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility in Brownsville, Texas June 18, 2014. Photo: REUTERS/Eric Gay/Pool

Hector Garza of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing Border Patrol agents, said he had not seen the coin either. When shown pictures of it by ProPublica, and in response to follow-up questions, he said, “I have no thoughts about the coin.”

Challenge coins have spread throughout the federal government, but are especially popular within Border Patrol. They depict individual offices or stations or particular missions. If official visitors come by to tour a station, a coin may be presented.

In this case, the “mission” being mockingly commemorated is the unprecedented amount of migrant care and processing Border Patrol agents did in the spring of this year.

Also read: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Describes ‘Horrifying’ Conditions at Texas Migrant Centre

Taking care of migrants (including children) in short-term custody is part of the Border Patrol’s job. When the intake system for migrant children is overwhelmed, as it was in 2014 and has been again in 2019, Border Patrol often holds children for longer than the 72 hours prescribed by the federal Flores settlement (a court agreement that governs the treatment of children in immigration custody), often in spaces not designed for children — or anyone.

In recent weeks the government has greatly reduced the number of children in Border Patrol custody, thanks in large part to funding from Congress that expanded the intake system’s capacity.

Some agents say that childcare and support have an opportunity cost: Any time an agent spends driving a van full of children to a child-only facility, for example, is time not spent “in the field” apprehending people who are trying to get away.

“Us caring for kids and families, that’s not the frustration,” Garza said. “Drugs coming into the country? That is a frustration. People with criminal records coming in and us not being able to catch them? That is a frustration.”

That tradeoff appears to be fueling the emotions expressed by the coin — with the back side depicting the tasks that agents must do instead of being out “on the line,” and the front side referring to the legal “loopholes” that make it harder to detain and deport migrants under 18 and families.

One Border Patrol agent, when asked about morale among agents detailed to care and transport, replied with a photo of a dumpster floating down a flooded river.

Dara Lind is a reporter at ProPublica.

This article was originally published on ProPublica.

US Targets Families for Deportation to Discourage Migrants

Donald Trump formally launched his re-election bid with a vow to continue his hard line against undocumented immigration.

US immigration authorities want to deport recently arrived families who arrived in the US without proper authorisation to discourage the surging numbers of Central Americans arriving from Mexico, a government official leading the effort said on Wednesday.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will target for deportation families that have received a removal order from a national immigration court, said Mark Morgan, the acting director of ICE, in a call with reporters.

By doing so, the agency will “be sending a powerful message to individuals from Northern Triangle countries: Do not come. Do not risk it,” said Morgan, referring to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. “Once you receive due process and get a final order, you will be removed.”

Also read: Trump Wants to Make It Easier to Deport Immigrants Who Use Public Benefits

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump formally launched his re-election bid with a vow to continue his hard line against undocumented immigration.

The number of migrants apprehended crossing the US-Mexico border surged in May to the highest level since 2006. Most are migrants from Central America that seek US asylum, a process that can take years. Many families are released into the US to wait out their deportation hearings, due to legal limits on the time children can be detained.

ICE will target individuals who had their claims addressed through an expedited family docket in immigration court that the Trump administration created last year, according to Morgan.

There were more than 56,000 cases on the fast-tracked family docket as of June 14, according to data from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the agency that oversees the nation’s immigration courts.

Approximately 12,800 have been ordered to be removed on the fast-tracked family docket, EOIR data shows. Of those, the majority were removed in absentia – meaning they did not show up for the hearing at which they were ordered deported.

Also Read: Assam Govt Orders FIRs Against Absconding Declared Foreigners

Kevin Landy, a former ICE assistant director under the Obama administration, said that many families who were released “were often not given specific information about where they should show up for their hearings.”

The surge of migrants has stretched the government’s resources and hampered deportations under Trump, which lag the levels of President Obama’s first term.

“Resources are clearly an issue,” said Morgan, which will dictate the pace of deportations

The Senate appropriations committee approved on a bipartisan 30-1 vote a $4.6 billion emergency spending bill for programs that house, feed, transport and oversee families seeking asylum on Wednesday.

(Reuters)